Speaker
Nirmal Kumar Iyer
(KTH)
Description
The study of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) has taken significant strides since GRBs were first reported by the Vela
satellite mission in the 1970s. The Fermi and Swift satellite missions have enabled prompt localisation
(imaging), high time resolution lightcurves (timing) and wideband spectral (spectroscopy) studies of the GRB.
Despite the advances made in imaging, timing and spectroscopic studies, a number of questions concerning the
emission mechanisms of the GRBs remain unanswered. A study of the polarisation signatures of different GRBs
promises to answer some of these open questions.
The Satellite Polarimeter for High eNergy X-rays (SPHiNX) is a high energy polarimeter proposed to SNSB as
the second Innosat mission. This is a dedicated satellite mission for monitoring and studying GRB polarisation
signatures. This talk will give an overview of the design principles and working strategy of SPHiNX. Results from
Geant4 based Monte-Carlo simulation studies of the polarimeter design will also be presented. The simulations
demonstrate the ability of SPHiNX to detect polarisation (in the presence of high energy photon and charged
particle backgrounds) and make use of these detections to understand the emission mechanism behind
different GRBs. This talk will present the simulation methods, obtained results and resulting scientific
interpretations from the SPHiNX mission in detail.
Primary author
Nirmal Kumar Iyer
(KTH)
Co-author
SPHiNX collaboration
(KTH)
